How to Get Crayon Out of Washed and Dried Clothes

...Because I'm helpful like that.

We're still on vacation, but fortunately we're staying at a fabulous 5-star location (my in-laws' house) that has full laundry services at no extra cost.  After being here over a week, I finally gathered up all the girls' clothes yesterday, separated them into two loads (though I didn't bother to sort - I just put half in the first load and half in the second) and threw them into the wash.  And when I pulled the first load out of the dryer, I was horrified to discover that everything was covered in brilliant purple crayon splotches.

You'd think after the iPod incident (which, now that I mention it, I don't think I ever blogged about - rice is the key there.  Rice and not turning it on right away) I'd have learned to check pockets before washing the girls' things, but, alas.

I may or may not have said a few choice words.  After all, this is the second major screw-up of this trip, and there were a lot of brand new clothes in that load.  Really cute brand new clothes.  But then I turned to my best friend, Google.  Seriously, what did people in these situations do before the internet?  There were several helpful results, but the one I was most interested in trying was the one that required the least amount of work.  I figured before I started dousing things in WD-40 or scraping every single stain (and there were a LOT) with a toothbrush, I'd try the easy solution.  This blog post was very encouraging, especially with the number of comments after it that all claimed success.  And, bonus, I only had to buy vinegar (and only because my mother-in-law had just run out), as opposed to some other options that had you adding all kinds of crazy stuff to the wash.

So, here's what you do:

1. Put the clothes in the washer, and set the water to hot.
2. Add your laundry detergent, 1/2 cup of vinegar, and 4-6 Tbsp of dishwasher liquid.
3. Let the clothes soak for 10-15 minutes.
4. Let the wash run normal.

My mother-in-law has a front-loading washing machine, so I wasn't entirely sure how to go about the soaking part, and she uses powdered detergent, so figuring out how to add that and the liquids was a little challenging, but I managed to figure it out.  Here are my variations (some on purpose and some on accident, but it all worked out):  I used a full scoop of the powdered detergent, 1 cup of vinegar - but only because I'd read so many different "recipes" that I'd gotten confused as to what the actual measurement was supposed to be - and 5 Tbsp of liquid dishwasher detergent.  I mixed it all together in a measuring cup, thinking that the powder would dissolve in the vinegar and then I could just pour it into the liquid portion of the detergent drawer, but apparently detergents react with vinegar, so that was kind of a volcanic experience.  I got it all in there eventually, though I don't know how much vinegar actually made it into the washer and how much I had to clean up off the counter.  I set the washer on hot and used the autosoak setting along with the heavy duty cycle, so the whole thing took about 2 hours.

It was quite the production when I opened up the washer - my mother-in-law and Vicki were both there, curious to see if it worked (I'll be honest, we all had our doubts - it sounded way too good to be true, especially considering the plethora of other solutions).  I pulled out the bright green sweatshirt that had originally held the crayon in its pocket and was relieved to see that ALL the purple stains and clumps of wax were gone.  In fact, all but two items were completely purple free!

So there you have it.  Should you ever find yourself in this same situation, have no fear!  The clothes can be saved.

Now, too bad I don't have a whole host of household stress relievers to post about.  I could start a series.  Of course, all I need to do is a few more loads of laundry and I'm sure I'll have some other disaster to share. That's just how I operate.

The Christmas that Almost Wasn't

A bit of a warning: this is a really long post.  I tried to make it shorter, but it's just not as much fun if you don't get all the details.  Bear with me, and hopefully it will be worth it once you've made it all the way through!  

When we left all of our family behind in Utah seven and a half years ago, it was with the unspoken understanding that we would bring the grandchildren home every year for Christmas.  So every year we pack our bags full of winter gear and Christmas presents, load up the car, and drive for 12 hours to spend a few weeks with the people we love.

This year was no different.  We loaded up Friday evening and got up early Saturday morning to begin our drive.  We usually leave around 3:00 in the morning so the girls will sleep for the first part of the drive, but this year the alarm malfunctioned and we didn't take off until just after 5:00.

We warned the girls that this would be a different drive than they were used to, because they were going to be awake for a lot more of it than they were used to.  Changes in plans do not go over well for people with Ebert genes, so we wanted to give them enough of a heads up that we didn't have to deal with drama when it took forever to get to Grandma's house.

Well.  It was certainly a different drive.  Just not for the reasons we anticipated.

About 3 hours into the drive, we were passing Pendelton, and I turned around to take a picture of the girls, who had snoozed a little and were now all happily occupied with movies and various other activities.

Little do they know...

Chris and I began talking about how efficiently we must have packed, because it didn't seem like the car was quite as full as usual.

And that's when it hit me, like the proverbial ton of bricks, that there was a very good reason why it didn't seem so full: because it wasn't.  There were three bags of Christmas presents at home in our closet.

All of the girls' Christmas presents.  ALL of them.

While packing Friday, I had gone through all the presents we were bringing with us and organized them into bags and boxes.  All the wrapped gifts for our families and from the girls to each other were in a pile on my bed, next to a giant - closed - box of unwrapped gifts for Chris and myself and the couple of things that were for the whole family.  Everything the girls were getting was sorted into three big grocery bags and put out of sight in my closet, where they had been hiding for the last several weeks anyway.  And, due to some miscommunication about what, exactly, was in the giant box, where they still were.

Once I had finished repeating variations of "Oh my gosh" and "Oh, no, no, no, no, no" and was able to explain to Chris why I had launched into complete and utter freak-out mode, he pulled the car off at the next exit, and we got out so we could discuss the situation without three extra pairs of ears.

Our first thought was, of course, that we would have to turn around and go back.  Another three hours in the car, except this time moving further away from our goal.  Our second, happier, thought was that maybe we could continue on to Utah, and somehow manage to book a plane ticket for either Chris or myself from Salt Lake to Portland and back again.  Because he travels for work, Chris has MVP gold status with Alaska Airlines, so he called them to see if there was anything they could do for us.  And there was, to the tune of $700.  The day before Christmas Eve is not a good time to book a last-minute plane ticket, FYI.

Back to square one.

So while I freaked out some more, Chris called his dad, hoping for another, less freaked out brain to help think things through.  After determining that the only keys to our house were with us, meaning no one could get in and overnight everything to us, and that no, we couldn't just rush out and replace everything once we got to Salt Lake and then return the stuff in our closet once we got home (which was also my dad's suggestion - he even went so far as to offer to start searching right away and save us some time), his dad realized that not only had Chris's brother and his girlfriend stayed overnight in La Grande, 45 minutes down the road, but that they were still there.

After much frantic phone calling back and forth between the three parties, it was determined that we would head to La Grande and meet up with Blaine and Mel, who would then take our car and continue on with the girls as far as Ogden, where Grandma & Grandpa would then meet them, give them a car, and take the girls on to Sandy.  Chris and I, meanwhile, would take Blaine & Mel's car and head back to Portland.  It is important to note that these two are saints, because not everybody would willingly agree to lock themselves in a car for seven hours with someone else's children.  Not even parents willingly do that.

All the way to La Grande we discussed with the girls what was happening.  The hard part was being as clear as we could about why it needed to happen while still being vague enough to keep from destroying certain beliefs.  We told the girls we forgot the presents and needed to go back and get them.  Ellie, who was sitting in the way back, immediately piped up, "No we didn't!  I can see them!  They're right here!"  And Vicki said, "Yeah, I carried them to the car."  And we said, again, "Nope, we forgot the presents."  Vicki caught on then, and started telling Ellie, "No, just trust them, they forgot stuff.", all the while with a look of horror on her face as it dawned on her just what had been forgotten.  Lexi didn't say much, but I think she's trying hard to hold on to certain beliefs, despite her brain telling her otherwise, and she didn't want to think about it any more than she really had to.  Once they understood that a return to Portland by some of the people in our car was inevitable, they immediately promised to be good for Blaine & Mel.  With the alternative being more time in the car, it was an easy promise to make.

So we got to La Grande around 9:30 in the morning, and, after a gas and potty break, Blaine, Mel, and the girls took off in one direction while Chris & I took off in another.  Four hours later, we were back home in Portland, where we headed straight upstairs to the master bedroom closet, pulled out my three very organized bags of presents, and put them in the car before grabbing a quick lunch and getting back on the road.

At one point, I called Mel to see how things were going, and she answered with, "We just had the best experience at a gas station.  With llamas!"

Llamas make any trip worthwhile

So things went great for them.  Fears were unfounded: the girls behaved, no one threw up, I was the only one who freaked out the entire trip.  It's not surprising, really, considering they've made this drive twice a year for the last seven years, but it's good to know they can do it.

And it's a good thing Chris and I like each other.  We talked, we listened to podcasts, we enjoyed music that we wanted to listen to... it was like a very long date, in a car.  And we decided to enjoy every minute of it.  What else could we do?

As much as we just wanted to get to our final destination, we knew that it would be too much to try and drive straight to Salt Lake, so we stopped around 10:30 at the Super 8 motel in Boise and had an impromptu overnight date.  After breakfast at Denny's we set off again at 8:45 the next morning, stopping in Ogden to trade cars with Blaine before finally arriving at Chris's parents' house just after 2:00 Sunday afternoon.

The total driving time for us came to 20 hours.  Yikes.

But, guess what?  It was totally worth it.  Because on Christmas morning, we got to see this:

Roller skates!

Perfect for the budding artist

Google Nexus tablet - she's been dying for this for a year now

Robotics 101

She didn't take the skates off or put down the
bunny all day long

I will be the first to admit that this was truly a first world problem.  There are so many people in this world who didn't even have presents to leave behind.  And, of course, we know that Christmas isn't about the presents, but the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Still, we were blessed this year to be able to provide some things for our girls that they really wanted, and it would have been sad for all of us if they'd had to wait for two weeks to receive them.

It turned out to be the best Christmas we've ever had.  I don't know whether everything was better because we had to work so hard to have it here, or if it's just that we really scored this year as far as knowing what the girls wanted, but whatever the reason, it was an excellent Christmas.  Well worth 20 hours in a car.

And, besides, now we have an awesome story to tell.

10 Items to Cross Off My Bucket List

The following items may or may not have actually been on any bucket list I may or may not have actually made.  But even if they weren't, they should have been.

1. Ring in the New Year in an airport.

Thankfully, no one got a butt shot of me

For Christmas this year, Chris's parents gave their children a Caribbean cruise.  We celebrated New Year's Day by watching Miami slowly disappear into the sunset.

Of course, before that, we had to celebrate New Year's Eve in the Salt Lake airport, waiting for our 1am flight to Atlanta.  By the time we arrived in Atlanta for our 4-hour layover, and despite (or, quite possibly, because of) the sleeping meds we took to help us on the red-eye, we were exhausted.  After a surprising breakfast at Chili's (I know, right?), we staked out our spots and crashed for an hour or two before it was on to Miami, where we boarded the majestic, if badly decorated, Norwegian Pearl and set off on a beautiful adventure on the Caribbean Sea.

2. Visit the Bahamas

Paradise, anyone?

Our first stop was Great Stirrup Cay, a private island owned by Norwegian Cruise Lines.  They schedule the island so that only one ship is there at a time, so we only had to share this little piece of paradise with the 2000+ other passengers on the ship.  We snorkeled a bit, but mostly just enjoyed the temperature difference between Utah and the Bahamas.

3. Bowl at sea

Yes, it is possible to bowl on a cruise ship.  It is not necessarily possible to bowl well, but at least on a cruise ship when you bowl badly you can blame it on the sea.

4. Zip line through the jungle

Those things are FAST!

When we went to Alaska, one of the excursions offered was a zip line adventure.  I really wanted to do it, but I was outvoted and we went on a float plane ride instead.  I've never regretted that, because it was pretty amazing, but I've still always wanted to experience the zip lines.  They did not disappoint.  And I think flying through the Jamaican jungle canopy was probably cooler than flying through Alaskan treetops, anyway.

5. Eat authentic Jamaica jerk chicken

It was really hard to get a clear picture, due to all the smoke, but those
are chickens splayed out on tree branches above a giant smoke pit
and covered by corrugated tin.

Oh. My. Word.  Our driver in Jamaica took us to this little place called Scotchies, where I ate the BEST chicken I have ever had.  I highly recommend it if you ever visit Ocho Rios.

And, as a side note, everyone in Jamaica really does say, "Mon."

6. Find out of Grand Cayman really lives up to all those John Grisham books

Cemetery Beach.  Gorgeous.  Peaceful.  Happiness.

Okay, I couldn't honestly tell if it does, since I wasn't there to embezzle company funds.  But it's beautiful and the snorkeling is awesome.

7. Get a fingerprint sunburn

Oops.

8. See a spotted eel off the coast of Cozumel

Me, Mel, & Erica rockin' the snorkel gear

Snorkeling in the Caribbean is like swimming in an aquarium.  The water is amazingly clear and the fish are pretty friendly.  The spotted eels, not so much.

9. Do pretty much nothing but eat, sleep, and read for an entire week

Oh, yeah.

10. Spend an amazing week with some of my favorite people

Thank you, Ron and Perri, for a fun, relaxing, rejuvenating, much-needed and thoroughly enjoyed vacation!

Sign of the Times?

What does it mean?

Reaching Our Destination

12 hours is a long time to be stuck in the car.

But we've made the drive between Portland and Salt Lake City 13 times now, and the girls are older and better at keeping themselves busy.

We have two portable DVD players, which surprisingly don't get as much use as they did a few years ago (although it appears that both Lexi and Ellie may have been utilizing them when I took the picture).  We also have the VCR in the car, although it, too, is mostly ignored.

Decades ago, my mom started a family road trip tradition of handing out "100-mile treats", and I've kept the tradition alive, although my mom's treats were actual, edible treats, while mine tend to be things like markers, books, and movies.  Hers were probably cheaper, but mine keep kids occupied for longer.

We always leave around 4am, and Chris drives while the girls and I snooze.  We switch sometime after breakfast, once we've stopped at one of the many gas stations we've become all too familiar with over the course of the last six years.  The hands-down best one is the Boise Stage Stop, on the Utah side of Boise.  Just in case anyone was wondering.

While driving, we play the Alphabet Game, I Spy, and 20 Questions.  We listen to music, podcasts (Radiolab, Freakonomics, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and This American Life are our favorites), and the girls singing.  Ellie sings songs she makes up, usually about such song-worthy subjects as the sun shining through the window or my sister's dogs.  Vicki and Lexi sing camp songs.

In past years, I've dreaded the drive.  It was long, it was boring, and the kids were squished and unhappy.  But now that we have a bigger car, older kids, and more life experience, I've decided it's actually kind of fun.  Too often in this house we're trying to find our own space and, essentially, get away from each other, but when we're forced to spend time in close quarters, my kids have learned that they can actually have a good time together.  They enjoy each other more, and Chris and I enjoy them.

And now I realize that these days, like the objects in the mirror, the destination is actually closer than it appears.

If I Call it an "Adventure", Maybe I Won't Cry

If I believed in karma, I'd be wondering what I'd done wrong.

This past week was the girls' Spring Break, and we left Chris behind and headed down to St. George for some Grandma & Grandpa time.  The plan was to fill our days with hiking, exploring, swimming, playing, and all kinds of craft projects, and my sister-in-law Emily was coming down with her girls Abbie and Savannah.

Our flight left late Friday night, so we spent the morning packing and the afternoon running errands.  Our neighbors, meanwhile, spent the afternoon in a gang-related shooting incident which caused our entire street to be closed off and filled with policemen.

For a while, it looked like we weren't going to be allowed to go home.  And not going home meant not packing and leaving again for the airport.

We eventually made it home, and in a crazy mad rush finished the packing, ate dinner, and left the house significantly less clean than I had intended to.  But we made it, and the trip began.

Among the items we forgot to pack in our mad rush: the girls' toothbrushes and my swimsuit.

Saturday we slept in and then went hiking at Red Cliffs Recreation Area.  Uncle Blaine and his girlfriend Mel were with us for the day.  This was BY FAR my favorite day of the trip.

Queen of the world!

This was a lot scarier than it looks - I'm so proud of her!

Sunday was spent playing with cousins, baking cookies with Grandma, and challenging Grandpa to a putting contest in the backyard "golf course".

This was also the day my camera broke.  Thankfully Vicki brought hers along, so I didn't have to worry about missing a day.

Monday was a rainy day, but we planned accordingly.  All the girls sewed matching pajama pants with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Emily while I ran around buying craft supplies and a new swimsuit (FYI: Walmart's choices in this department are rather unfortunate.)  We made flower fairies and went to Del Sol, where Grandpa bought us each a t-shirt.

And this is where my vacation ended.

Tuesday morning I awakened to the sound of Vicki throwing up.  Everyone else went hiking at Zion National Park while the two of us stayed home and watched movies.  Then they got back from hiking, with a vomit-covered Ellie, who didn't make the last 10 minutes of the drive.

Wednesday was another day of doing nothing at home.  I finished one book and started another, while Ellie watched movies and threw up a lot.  Everyone else went to the sand dunes in Snow Canyon, and Vicki came home with a fever.  Goody.

Ellie continued into the evening, so by 8pm I was on the phone with our insurance company's ask-a-nurse and the on-call physician at our pediatrician's office.  Both recommended having her looked at, so it was off to the ER, where it didn't take long to conclude that she was dehydrated and in need of an IV.  The poor kid was so miserably sick that she didn't even move when the stuck the needle in.  After another bout of vomiting, they gave her some Zofran, which I have nicknamed The Wonder Drug, and within 10 minutes she was sitting up, chatting animatedly about all kinds of things, and eating a popsicle, which stayed down.  If you ask her what the worst part about the hospital visit was, she'll tell you it was when they removed the tape that was holding the IV on.  It was the only time she cried.

After the Zofran


We returned home around 11pm to learn that Lexi had a fever.  Joy.

So on Thursday, Lexi lay on the same couch previously occupied by her sisters, watching movies while Emily and I cleaned and packed and Grandma and Grandpa took the rest of the girls to a park.  They came back to pick us up for lunch at IHOP, but Lexi elected to stay home.  Knowing I hadn't been out of the house in two days, Grandma offered to stay with her, but I only got out of the house long enough to make it to the IHOP parking lot, where Vicki threw up.  Again.  And where the energy was quickly fleeing from Ellie.

So I had one kid with a fever, for which Tylenol was doing nothing, one kid who was vomiting, and one who had absolutely no energy and complained of a tummy ache (mine would ache too if I'd spent 24 hours vomiting).  Two of them were also having issues with the other end, if you get my drift.  And I wasn't feeling so hot myself anymore.

Did I mention we had a plane to catch that night?

God is good.  I know this because after begging and pleading with Him for pretty much the whole day, we managed to make it home almost without incident.  The girls were in fairly good spirits during the two-hour drive from St. George to Las Vegas, and they managed to make it through security (bless forever the sweet security lady who must have seen the exhaustion in all of us and sent us through the "special" line - the one set aside for airport personnel and wheelchairs) and into the packed waiting area before crashing.  We found a corner and they all lay down and fell asleep.  Once we got on the plane, Ellie was asleep again before takeoff and Lexi about five minutes after.  We made it through the first hour of the flight before Vicki threw up again.  Thank goodness for barf bags and a kid who's old enough to know what to do.

The plane landed at midnight, and when Chris picked us up I sat down in the car and burst into tears.

We made it.

I don't believe in karma, but if I did, I'd have an awful lot of questions for the universe.  I'm pretty sure I haven't done anything to deserve all that.  I do believe in God, though, and I know there's no way I would have made it through the day yesterday without His help.  I did not do that on my own - He was holding me up until I could do it on my own again.

And now, I need a vacation.

Go That Way, Really Fast. If Something Gets in Your Way, Turn.

I learned to ski when I was 15, but Chris has been skiing pretty much since he could walk. His family goes every year on Christmas Eve, and his mother finally admitted this year that they started the tradition to wear the kids out so they’d go to bed that night.

We’ve been taking Vicki since she was four years old, but Lexi has a different personality, and she hasn’t been interested in the past. This year we decided that it was time for her to give it a try. And Ellie, never one to be outdone by her sisters, was ready to give it a shot, too.

When we took Vicki the first time, we just took her up the lift and then nearly broke our (and by “our”, I mean “Chris’s”) back skiing really slowly down with her. She laughed the whole way up the chairlift and cried the whole way down the slope every single time. We managed to convince her that she had fun, and she’s skied every year since then.

Although this method probably would have worked with Ellie, and likely without the tears, we’ve known all along that there’s no way it would work with Lexi. Our niece Abbie is the same way. So Chris’s parents decided to enroll the three beginners in ski school. Ellie and Abbie had 1-hour private lessons, and Lexi was part of a small class. This was definitely the way to do it, because all three girls had an absolute blast and can’t wait to do it again.

Look at me, I’m on skis!

Ready to go!

The most gorgeous skiers on the slopes!

Ellie wore a constant grin and talked to her instructor the whole time. The. whole. time.  He probably didn't understand a single word she said to him, but then that never stops her.  She actually did learn some things, though. If you ask her about skiing, she’ll tell you, “Pizza slice, and no kissing!”

All by herself!

Vicki and Grandpa, in a rare, but necessary, truce from their prank war

I couldn’t resist! Her control has gotten so much better, but even the best skiers wipe out sometimes!

Unfortunately, you can’t ski like that on an empty stomach and without any fluids, which is exactly what Vicki tried to do, and we learned just what dehydration feels like. After throwing up twice in the car on the way down the mountain (didn’t help that she’s already prone to motion sickness and it was a winding road) and sipping three glasses of Gatorade, she was back to normal, though, and I doubt it will ever happen again.

She wasn’t the only one worn out by all the hard work, either.

Ellie crashed in the car on the way down and stayed completely asleep when I carried her into the house, laid her in the chair, and removed her coat and snowpants.

She was completely awake, though, as soon as the words, “Do you want a cookie?” were uttered.

That's my girl.

The Ubiquitous Vacation Post

I took just over 600 pictures while we were in Utah.

Wow.

We haven't loaded the pictures the girls took with their cameras onto the computer yet, but when we do, I'm sure the grand total of pictures taken on this vacation will be well over 1000.  Easily.

Rather than bore everyone to death with countless posts of all the things we did during the two weeks we were in Utah, I thought I'd just do a highlights post and get it all over with at once.  Well, okay, not all of it, because I do have one or two things that warrant their own post, but for the most part it's all going to be in this single post.

So...without further ado, and in chronological order, our trip to Utah, in pictures.

We always get together with my Study Abroad friends when we visit Utah.  It's been 11 years since we got back from London.  Maybe one day we'll all go there together.

Grandma & Grandpa Y. live in Park City, so we're pretty much always guaranteed snow to play in.

Grandma likes to cater to the kiddos, hence the olive fingers.

Since Scotty's in Georgia this year, the girls got to sleep in his room, in a real bed, instead of on a pallet on the floor of the office.  Not that they minded the office floor, though, because I've learned my kids can sleep anywhere.  I don't know what it is about sleeping kid pictures, but every mom's gotta take 'em.

Chris's family has gone skiing on Christmas Eve for at least 20 years now.  This year only half his siblings were able to go, but we took all the kids over 2.  Vicki's the only one of the kids who's ever skied before, and two kids in particular are a little...temperamental, so we weren't sure how the day would go.  A separate post for this event is forthcoming.

Chris's family also has a tradition of a big Christmas Eve dinner.  The menu traditionally includes chicken cordon bleu and artichokes.  Each person has a candle by their place, and when the meal is over we go around the table and each person says something they're thankful for and then lights their candle.

After dinner we opened a few presents.  Grandma & Grandpa E. gave all their granddaughters remote control cars.  The chaos was hilarious, especially since some of the cars operated on the same frequency.

Christmas morning brought each of my girls a digital camera from Santa.  Pictures to follow in another post.

We spent Christmas day at my parents' house with the whole family.  In an odd coincidence, we gave my brother & his wife the game Guesstures, and they gave us the same thing.  Here's Robbie trying to get us to guess "bikini".

The Banana is a longstanding tradition in my extended family, but it's been a while since we've all done it together.  "Bananas of the world, unite!"

The girls loved playing with their cousins.  Emily and her girls were at Grandma E.'s house as much as possible.

A recent Ebert girl tradition is the "Little Ladies Lemonade Party" (although since it's winter we had a hot cocoa party instead.)  We all wear fancy hats and bring our American Girl dolls.  I don't have a doll, and neither do Abbie (yet) or Grandma E. (and Ellie's is actually from Target, but she doesn't care.  Yet.), but Blaine's girlfriend Mel has several and was happy to share.

On New Year's Eve we got together with a bunch of Chris's friends from high school (and longer).  We all have kids and the house was full of chaos, but it's always great to see them again.

We're kinda party poopers when it comes to actually ringing in the New Year, though.

On New Year's Day we went sledding with Grandma & Grandpa Y.

And finally it was time to drive home.  The girls tend to get creative when it comes to keeping themselves entertained.  But if they're happy, we're happy.

So there you have it.  If you've ever wondered what Eberts do on a long vacation, wonder no more.

Stay tuned for lots more pictures, taken by my children, and likely waaaaay more amusing than these!